New Album

It’s time for the 18th GABBAfest! This festival has been going on since 1997 (with a couple interruptions). Macon is the home once again for this great little fest September 22-24. Ah, but what, you ask, is GABBAfest? Good question. It’s a great acronym for Georgia Allman Brothers Band Association. Now that makes sense! Saturday September 23 at the Douglass Theatre – An Evening with The Freight Train with special guests Vaylor Trucks and Melody Trucks and Cody Dickinson and Luther Dickinson. Doors at 6:30, show at 7:30. The Freight Train Band are: Heather Gillis, guitar, vocals; Damon Fowler, guitar, vocals; Bruce Katz, keyboards; Garrett Dawson, percussion; Matt Walker, bass; and Justin Headly, drums. More Info > http://bit.ly/2xWaji5

The singular Leon Russell, who died today at age 74, impacted musicians from various generations and genres. The Oklahoma native was a famed session musician, bandleader, and hit songwriter before becoming a solo star in the 1970s. Russell enjoyed a late career comeback when he collaborated with Elton John on the 2010 album “The Union.” The following year, Russell was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.” Damon Fowler, while living in a historic cottage in Bradenton Beach, released his 2011 album “Devil Got His Way,” which features mostly originals as well as a cover of Russell’s classic hit “Tight Rope.”

“Devil Got His Way” reached No. 13 on Billboard’s Blues Albums chart and while Fowler is best known as a blues musician, like Russell, he enjoys working in various styles; dividing his time between leading a namesake power trio, playing in blues supergroup Southern Hospitality and serving as co-lead guitarist and singer in co-founding Allman Brother Butch Trucks’ Freight Train Band. “I love Leon Russell,” Fowler says from his home in Lakeland, just a few days before returning to the road with Trucks. “There was just something about his mix between country and gospel and honky tonk, he had a really good recipe for all that stuff, soul and blues, he really put it together seamlessly.” Fowler, a Brandon native, became a fan of Russell at a young age. “My mom was a big Leon Russell fan so that was how I got into him,” the 37-year-old Fowler says. “She was very happy when I got to open for him about 10 years ago at club in Ybor City.”

“His band was good, he sang good, he had both his daughters in his band, it was a great show,” Fowler recalls. Read Entire Article!

Headlining will be Tampa’s homegrown blues guitar aficionado, Damon Fowler. He’s back in town after traveling the United States and five other countries with his own trio, as a member of the blues/Southern rock band Southern Hospitality, and as a guest artist on another friend’s record.

“It’s been fun,” Fowler said of his worldly travels.

But he’s happy to be home to help out.

“Blues for Food — well I think it’s a great deal,” he said. “We’re really excited to be a part if it.”

Damon Fowler makes his first appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown.

Known as a master of the guitar in and around his hometown of Tampa, Fowler started wowing audiences with his musical exploits as a teenager. He began singing and writing his own music as the years passed, further expanding his repertoire. Fowler has released three albums for the Blind Pig label, including his latest, Sounds of Home.

Produced by swamp-blues master Tab Benoit, Sounds was recorded in Benoit’s rural Louisiana studio, capturing just the right mix of grit and polish. Fowler is backed here by his own Tampa-based trio, including Chuck Riley on bass and drummer James “Big Country” McKnight.

You wonder if there might have been a mistake on his birth certificate. The way this guy plays guitar, his given name should have been Demon instead of Damon Fowler. The fiery guitarist’s slide, dobro and lap steel riffs have been snapping heads around since his ’99 debut, Riverview Drive, produced and played on by legendary rocker Rick Derringer.

But as he has proved with a string of albums for Blind Pig beginning with ’09’s Sugar Shack, Fowler doesn’t need any help getting his message across. A blend of sacred steel, backwater blues and howling, greasy swamp rock, Fowler’s music is a primal, atavistic sound that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. His solo gigs with his skin tight power trio have converted rooms full of strangers into a loyal congregation who now attend his services regularly, and his exposure as half of the twin guitar attack (with J.P. Soars) of the newly convened blues supergroup Southern Hospitality and their March 2013 release Easy Livin’ has given him evangelical status among the faithful.

Damon Fowler “Sounds of Home” Blind Pig Records “Sounds of Home” is Damon Fowler’s third cd. A lot has happened since he last released 2011’s “Devil Got His Way” his second on “Blind Pig”. Fowler joined forces with JP Soars and Rufus Wainwright to form “Southern Hospitality”, a bluesy southern rock band. Their first much acclaimed Read the full article…

Recently, I read an online article arguing the inevitable demise of rock music. The writer saw fit to place the blame upon a variety of conditions, from the public unfairly judging bands by their looks (As opposed to their music), to band classifications and whether or not they deserve to be considered “classic”, to the Read the full article…

DAMON FOWLER SOUNDS OF HOME BLIND PIG RECORDS BPCD 5157 I THOUGHT I HAD IT ALL–SOUNDS OF HOME–TROUBLE– SPARK–OLD FOOLS, BAR STOOLS, AND ME–WHERE I BELONG–GRIT MY TEETH–ALISON–TV MAMA–DO IT FOR THE LOVE–I SHALL NOT BE MOVED Damon Fowler has been a busy young man of late. As well as spending much of last year Read the full article…